Boards can lead from strengths to fundraise more effectively

Nonprofit boards can fundraise and govern more effectively when they lead from their strengths.

Forming strengths-based leadership teams lets members operate from their natural talents, instead of pushing against their weaknesses. The result: More mission impact for the organization, and more personal fulfillment for the members.

In this post, I'll show you how to:

Understand strengths psychology—the idea that you and your mission are better off when you play to your strengths, instead of try to "fix" your weaknesses.

Help board members understand how their Gallup StrengthsFinder strengths apply to ensuring abundant resources for your organization through fundraising.

Write a quick action plan to help your board lead from its strengths.

Understanding strengths psychology

The theory here is Donald Clifton's strengths psychology—that people are "able to gain far more when they expend effort to build on their greatest talents than when they spend a comparable amount of effort to remediate their weaknesses." The application is Gallup's well-known StrengthsFinder assessments, which have helped millions of people identify and build their own strengths, plus work better in teams because they understand other people's strengths.

Think of strengths as the path of least resistance between you and the results you want to achieve—both for individuals and for leadership teams, which is what boards are. In the team context, no one member is going to have all the qualities a board needs to fulfill its collective responsibilities and make big and lasting mission impact. As Tom Rath and Barry Conchie succinctly put it in their book Strengths-Based Leadership, "Although individuals need not be well-rounded, teams should be."

Quickly identifying your strengths (before taking StrengthsFinder)

This isn't an official definition, but it's a helpful one. Strengths are your natural talents. They are things you can do well with less effort than things at which you are less strong. They are themes that define you. If you were to fill in the blanks in these sentences...

I've always had a knack for ________

People have always said I"m good at ________

I find that ________ comes naturally for me

...those would be your strengths. Go ahead and fill in those blanks. (Don't write on your screen, please.)

How StrengthsFinder strengths apply to fundraising

In a workshop I've put together called Strengths-Based Board Leadership, I provide some suggested matches for strengths and fundraising responsibilities. These suggestions are intended to inspire your own thinking about how you can form strong leadership teams using your colleagues' mix of strengths.

Achiever: Works hard at personal efforts to generate financial resources.

How StrengthsFinder strengths apply to getting the good word out

But what if my board's fearful of fundraising? Well, Marc Pitman can help you learn to, you know, Ask Without Fear (ba dum dum CHING!), but strengths-based leadership can as well. An often-overlooked element of ensuring abundant resources is enhancing the organization's public standing. The public's high regard for your organization is itself a resource you can transform into dollars. To learn more, head over to johnfulwider.com to read my followup article, "Boards can lead from strengths to raise a nonprofit's public standing."

Take action to lead from strengths

What will you do to lead from your strengths? Answer these questions (again, donit write on your screen!) to build a quick action plan with which you can implement what you've learned.

Your Envisioned Future: When you've successfully built strengths-based leadership teams on your board, what will these people and things look like? How will they have changed?

You

The people you serve

Your board

Your community

Your Purpose Statement: Why do you want to achieve this future?

Your Current Reality: What's your current reality? What are the gaps between today and your envisioned future?

Specific Action Commitments: What will you commit to doing to create your envisioned future?

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Marc A. Pitman is the author of Ask Without Fear! and director of The Nonprofit Academy. A coach to leaders around the world, Marc's expertise and enthusiasm engages audiences and has caught the attention of media organizations as diverse as Al Jazeera and Fox News. Marc’s experience also includes pastoring a Vineyard church, managing a gubernatorial campaign, and teaching internet marketing and fundraising at colleges and universities. He is the husband to his best friend and the father of three amazing kids. And if you drive by him on the road, he’ll be singing 80’s tunes loud enough to embarrass his family! You can connect with him on Google+, on Twitter @marcapitman, and like "Ask Without Fear!" on Facebook.To get his free ebook on 21 ways to get board members engaged with fundraising, go to http://thenonprofitacademy.com/21waysebook

Comments

Thanks so much for sharing this Marc. It’s a great tool, and I’ve used it with my staffs in the past. It makes so much practical sense to lead from strength, rather than to continually beat ourselves up trying to perfect our areas of weakness. We’d all be so much better off if we simply appreciated folks for the strengths they bring to the table; then try to find others to fill in where we’re needing some additional talents.

It’s also really useful to both know your own strengths, and to appreciate that not everyone you work with is exactly like you. That’s okay. Bringing folks together with different approaches to brainstorming, problem-solving, analyzing and implementing creates a much stronger approach to all that we do. After doing these exercises with my staff, I didn’t stress so much when I got stuck on something. I’d look for the couple of folks who had skills I didn’t possess, and bring them into the conversation.

What a great guest post! When Now Discover Your Strengths was published in 2001 we had the entire development office staff go through the assessment. Graphing the teams strengths created an incredible sense of appreciation for each other’s gifts.This appreciation went a long way towards creating a powerful workplace dynamic. This is important stuff to know when trying to create a high impact fundraising effort. Thanks for the great post!